Control Laser History

Founded April 19, 1965

1965 – 1974

Pioneer of Laser Technology

April 19, 1965, the inventor of the automobile airbag, Michael Ivashuk, founded a private company in Pompano Beach, Florida, incorporated as Ivashuk Manufacturing Company. The company’s initial business was to serve as a universal contractor for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. Ivashuk Manufacturing developed and manufactured jet engine parts and missiles from exotic materials.

In 1968, as the business expanded, Michael merged Ivashuk Manufacturing with the Orlando Research Corp., and renamed the company as Control Laser Corporation, then went public listed the next year, and eventually landing on the NASDAQ in 1974.

Michael had forseen the infinite future of laser technology in the years after going public while vigorously working on laser development. By March of 1973, Control Laser became the top producer of YAG lasers in the United States (Orlando Sentinel Mar 11, 1973 Article). At this stage, Control Laser pioneered many far-reaching laser applications, like ophthalmology laser therapy, ION lasers for University research and later used in large light show demonstrations, laser holographic anti-counterfeiting for emerging credit card businesses at the time, spinning polygon barcode readers, the first versions of laser finger print detection, and the first semiconductor wafer laser marking system.

High Power CO2 Laser Cutter from 1985

CLC Stocks Awarded to Employees

1974 – 1988

Expanding Age

In July 1977, Michael Ivashuk sold his controlling interest of Control Laser Corp. to a Washington based logistics company named Security Storage. The founder’s son, Robert Van Roijen Jr., was elected Chairman of Control Laser. Mr. Van Roijen, who came from a family of CIA officials and joined IBM after graduating from Harvard College, was responsible for marketing and government relationships for 4 years, and became a co-founder of numerous venture capitals and hedge fund companies.

After taking charge of Control Laser, Robert used his ingenuity of capital operation to develop the business by acquiring a series of laser companies with proprietary technology. This move quickly expanded the company’s revenue by more than 10 times. Important expansions included acquiring Holobeam in 1978 for entering high power Ruby and YAG laser welding, drilling and diamond cutting applications. Acquiring a new business venture in Daventry, England from British Oxygen Corp. in 1980 for developing a computer aided 6kW CO2 laser machine tool with 5-axis servo robotics to cut and weld metal which were sold to the US Navy, Boeing Military Aircraft, and GE Turbine Generation Systems in the mid 1980’s.

In 1977, after a long wait of 18 years, Gordon Gould finally won the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Laser Invention patent approval. The Bell Labs patent held for 17 years since 1960 and their laser patents were terminated. The patent Office awarded the patent to Gould and within one week, a lawsuit was filed against Control Laser.

There were new patent approvals given to Gould as the year progressed. The approval yielded a huge patent fee due for that year. Royalties were due and resisted by the current laser equipment companies. Gordon in turn, sold some of the patent proceeds to cover attorney fees. Continuing the fight after 10 years of patent litigation, one-by-one crushing all the resistance of the current laser companies.

Pratt & Whitney Turbine Blade Laser Micro Drilling System

Control Laser’s 1st 3D 5-Axis Laser Cutting System

1988 – 2008

Applications Diversification

In July 1988, Control Laser’s controlling ownership had been sold to Quantronix Company, thus entering the semiconductor mask repair business. Because of the volatility of the semiconductor market at the end of 1992, Excel Technology acquired Quantronix and Control Laser.

In 1985, Mr. Rama Rao, the Indian American physicist, son of an Indian steel company accountant, founded Excel Technology Inc. After the successful development of tunable wavelength lasers for oncology surgery, Excel Tech landed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in 1991. After public listing, Excel technology continuously acquired proprietary technology companies every one to two years.

With respect to Excel Technologies, Control Laser Corp. is the only company in the United States to provide solutions for the manufacture and sale of automated laser processing systems. The laser applications and CLC’s customer base expanded from aerospace, military and semiconductor industries into automobiles, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, tools, molds, jewelry, trophies, packaging and other commercial markets.

Automated Laser Marking on Vinyl Music Records

CLC’s 1st unattended laser marking system for automotive bearings

2008 – Present

Continuous Innovation

In July 2008, General Scanning Inc. Group determined to horizontally integrate the laser industry, financed 3.6 billion USD to privatize and acquire Excel Technology, because of the financial crisis, General Scanning Inc. Group went into bankruptcy protection and debt restructuring, divested its laser equipment business. In November 2012, Control Laser’s equity fully owned by Hans Laser group.

In April 1996, university professor Gao Yunfeng founded Han’s Laser company, and went public in 2004. Started from the laser marking machine business, Han’s Laser successfully expanded the business into the various industrial applications after 20+ years of effort, including the high-power laser cutting and welding, 3D printing of metal additive manufacturing, ultrafast laser system integration, CNC machine tools, industrial robotics, etc. Now Han’s group is the world’s largest laser system manufacturer by sales volumes, and is ranked top 3 by market value in laser systems market segment.